PAX East 2019

Harrison Reinisch, Copy Editor
April 4, 2019

Gaming has become one of the largest forms of entertainment in the world. When there are a lot of people interested in a particular activity, conventions and expositions help to bring people together in order to celebrate a shared tradition or hobby. Gaming is no exception to this practice, and there are many large conventions that happen all over the world to celebrate the world of gaming. One of the biggest gaming conventions is the annual Penny Arcade Expo – Or PAX for short. It’s held in the Boston Convention and Exposition Center, and brings thousands of people every year in order to celebrate gaming. This is PAX East 2019.

 

An outside view of the Convention Center.
An advertisement for PAX outside the Convention Center.
A line to get inside of PAX. This was actually the line to get inside the side entrance to the expo, while the line for the front entrance was far greater in size.
The entrance lobby to PAX. A large display is used to advertise both games and PAX itself.
A view from the front entrance of the Expo hall. It’s hard to overstate just how many people attended PAX East 2019, and how many booths there were to check out.
A look from inside the Expo Hall shows the crowded nature of the Expo. With so many people all gathered together to celebrate a common hobby, it’s easy to meet new and interesting people you never would’ve known otherwise.
A better look at the upper passageway that connects the east and west side of the Convention Center. It can be very time consuming to walk all the way over from one end of the Convention Center to the other, so this hall is much appreciated.
Groups of gamers gather to talk about, play, and enjoy their favorite games.
People test out Mortal Kombat 11 on the Nintendo Switch before it comes out. The beloved fighting game is slated to be one of the biggest releases of the year.
While PAX can be great for promoting big, AAA titles, it also allows indie gems, such as the upcoming My Friend Pedro, to shine through. The new My Friend Pedro is a complete remake of the indie flash game of the same name.
A round of Super Smash Bros. Melee is played. The voice and chat service Overtone hosted a variety of retro games at their booth.
The day after letting onlookers play Super Smash Bros, Overtone switched up the genre, game and console it showcased, letting gamers try a round of Halo 2 splitscreen team deathmatch.
There are many creative costumes people wear at PAX. On the left of the photo above, someone chose to wear a dinosaur costume with a Mario hat.
The official competitive Overwatch League team for Boston, the Boston Uprising, has their own Booth at PAX. If you’re interested in cheering on a team for the Overwatch League, New York has their own team: the New York Excelsior.
Hardware company Aorus let gamers play against each other in free-for-all rounds of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The winners of each game could take home a free Aorus bag. The games were played on high-end Aorus laptops with new and ultra-powerful graphics cards, such as the new Nvidia RTX 20 series.
Aside from their Counter-Strike competition, Aurous also had a variety of other attractions at PAX. One of these is shown above, where gamers would compete in a custom round of the popular video game Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds.
PAX is one of the most interesting and populous places to be for gamers.
Food is served in various places throughout the Convention Center. It’s important to stay nourished throughout the convention, especially as this one is multiple hours long!
Many computer companies show off their high-end rigs to consumers at PAX in the hopes that they can get some gamers to buy what’s shown to them. However, one popular hardware company, Thermaltake, actually disassembled and reassembled a high end gaming rig each day at PAX.
Two gamers cosplay as the Villager (left) and Creeper (right) characters from Minecraft.
The Super Meat Boy Forever Booth. The bald man in this picture is Tommy Refenes, the Co-Founder of Team Meat. Refenes is one of the lead developers of the highly anticipated Super Meat Boy Forever.
The popular Youtube channel Gameranx hosts an episode of their weekly show, “Gameranx Live.” In it, they talk about gaming news, what they’ve been playing, upcoming games, and more.
While PAX can be great for checking out what’s new and upcoming in gaming, it can also be a nice place to unwind and just play some games. PAX offers PCs for participants of the expo to use. Also shown in the left of the picture are groups of people playing the popular card game Magic: The Gathering.
Republic of Gamers, or ROG, had a booth wherein gamers could play the smash game Fortnite and their best and most well-equipped rigs. These games are shown live to onlookers via a screen outside their play area. A variety of other booths can seen in this picture as well, such as Microsoft’s Xbox and hardware manufacturer Aorus.
The Discord Lounge lets gamers play a variety of games on Discord computer systems. While they offer a free chat service, Discord also offers a paid monthly (or yearly) service that gives subscribers unlimited access to a wide variety of games at no additional cost. The service, advertised on the screens above the computers, is called Discord Nitro. The free version of Discord is one of the most popular social media applications for gamers, and is used among plenty of iSchool students.
A conference from PAX about “non-developmental careers in games,” or jobs not directly associated with producing games.
A closer look at those giving the talk. From left to right starting with lady with the white hair: lawyer Liz Surrete, journalist Seth Macy, and games marketer Elicia Basoli.
Game controller skin designer Controller Chaos shows off their impressive offering of various PlayStation 4 controller skins.
One of the all-time staples of the fighting game genre, Street Fighter II is one of the most popular and widely-played arcade games ever made. Here, it is available to play in its original arcade format – no quarters required.
In addition to letting players play Street Fighter II, this particular booth offered a large collection of retro games that were available for purchase. Throughout PAX. there were a number of places where gamers could buy a wide variety of various retro games. In this booth, there are games offered for systems ranging from the Nintendo Entertainment System to the PlayStation 3.
Many extravagant and superlative computers are available for demo at PAX. Aside from computers and internal parts, PAX can also be a place to showcase gaming peripherals, such as colorful mice and keyboards or vibrant monitors.
There were over 300 booths at PAX East 2019, each packed with compelling games, services, merchandise and more to check out. Games of all genres, new and old, are commemorated.
A Nintendo 64 is used to play the all-time classic first person shooter, GoldenEye 007.GoldenEye has been commonly touted as one of the best and most important video games in history.
A man cosplaying as popular comic book character Deadpool meets a U.S. Army Special Forces Ranger. To clarify, the Army Ranger is not cosplaying, and is an actual part of the U.S. Army.
The booth for the popular upcoming game designed for creating games, Dreams. Dreams is a sort of game-creating game, where players can make their own games, and customize everything from the level design to the soundtrack. Above, a live showing of a game being made with Dreams is being shown.
A gaming laptop with the new RTX 20 series cards is used to play Metro Exodus. New gaming laptops offer an enjoyable experience without compromising on portability.
The Jackbox stage lets people play the popular party game Jackbox together on a big screen. In Jackbox, there are no dedicated controllers. Instead, participants use their phones on a special room on the game’s website to upload their responses to prompts shown on the screen.
A sign shown for those leaving the expo hall.

If you’ve never been to PAX – or any gaming convention for that matter – then consider going sometime. You might just be surprised by the incredible experience it offers.